Saturday, November 29, 2014

Throughout the day yesterday, here in the States, I couldn’t help but think
about (and miss) what Thanksgiving had been last year, in the field. It was
very different in many ways, but more importantly, it was heartwarmingly
similar in all the most important ways.

We had pumpkin pie making…or rather, ‘pumpkin pie themed
dessert experimenting’. It was a great moment of field improvisation.

·No pie pan? No problem, grab the square pan.

·No butter? Worry not – we have the Vitamin A
Enriched Medium Fat Spread lovingly known as BlueBand.

·No pumpkin? When you have butternut squash, who
cares?

·No measuring cups? Who wants to be that
predictable?

Jackson and Julie making our butternut squash pie

Julie and Hadley cutting out the designs to top the pie.

The most memorable part of the pie was a crust cut-out of Navajo’s head, to celebrate her then recently passed
21st birthday…you don’t see that on most pumpkin pies in the States.

We had fresh baked bread…that we would have broken together
if the monkeys hadn’t gotten to it first.

We had an abundance of friends gathered – around the kitchen
(of course, isn’t it always the social hub of the ‘house’?)

Most importantly, we had family, and what more could you ask
for on a holiday? We had a shared meal, dancing, and even ‘home videos’ of
impersonations done by Benson and Wilson.

Pre-feast dancing (Photo: Julie Turner)

Watching home videos at Thanksgiving (Photo: Julie Turner)

Looking back on my Thanksgiving last year, I remember so
distinctly the feeling of being home, surrounded by friends, and overflowing
gratitude. This year, as I gave thanks, the guys at our camp, and our whole
Fisi family were high on my list – for keeping us alive over the year, for
feeding us and keeping camp maintained, and for being our family, for making
camp a home in which we could celebrate and experience the joy of the holiday
seasons.

P.S. Our hyenas didn’t miss Thanksgiving either, however;
when you have an animal that can eat 1/3 of its body weight in a single
feeding, the post-feast experience is impressively more rotund.

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